Impact of COVID-19-Related Stress and Lockdown on Mental Health Among People Living With HIV in Argentina.

BACKGROUND: The spread of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2, causative agent of the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19), has necessitated widespread lockdown to mitigate the pandemic. This study examines the influence of resilience on the impact of COVID-related stress and enforced lockdown on mental health, drug use, and treatment adherence among people living with HIV (PLWH) in Argentina. SETTING: PLWH residing predominantly in Buenos Aires Metropolitan Area and urban regions of Argentina were identified from a private clinic electronic database. METHODS: Participants completed an anonymous online survey to evaluate the impact of COVID-19 on economic disruption, resilience, mental health outcomes (depression, anxiety, stress, and loneliness), adherence to HIV treatment, and substance use. We performed ordinary least squares and logistic regressions to test whether resilient coping buffered the impact of economic disruption on mental health and drug use during quarantine. RESULTS: A total of 1336 PLWH aged 18-82 were enrolled. The impact of economic disruption on mental health ΔF(1,1321) = 8.86, P = 0.003 and loneliness ΔF(1,1326) = 5.77, P = 0.016 was buffered by resilience. A 3-way interaction between resilient buffering, stress, and sex was significant ΔF(1,1325) = 4.76, P = 0.029. Participants reported less than excellent adherence to medication (33%), disruption to mental health services (11%), and disruption to substance abuse treatment (1.3%) during lockdown. DISCUSSION: The impact of COVID-stress and lockdown on emotional distress seemed mitigated by resilience coping strategies, and the buffering impact of resilience on perceived stress was greater among women. Results highlight PLWH's capacity to adhere to treatment in challenging circumstances and the importance of developing resilience skills for better coping with stress and adversity.

The Top News Stories of 2021: The Hidden Toll of COVID-19.

Workplace violence, domestic abuse, and firearm-related deaths are on the rise.

'I will rather be killed by corona than by him ': Experiences of abused women seeking shelter during South Africa's COVID-19 lockdown.

BACKGROUND: In April 2020, the United Nations predicted that the COVID-19 pandemic will have a 'calamitous' impact on the lives of women. This was based on concerns about an upsurge in Intimate Partner Violence (IPV) arising from increased opportunities for relational conflict due to forced co-existence and therefore additional time spent with abusive partners. AIM: Research has shown an increase in IPV during times of crisis. The COVID-19 pandemic has generated unprecedented circumstances and stress, and opportunities to do research to understand whether the COVID-19 pandemic impacted on IPV experiences were limited. Thus, the present study aimed to understand women's experiences of being in and leaving an abusive relationship during the COVID-19 pandemic. METHODS: Individual, telephonic interviews were conducted with 16 women living in domestic violence shelters within three Provinces during South Africa's lockdown period. RESULTS: Findings reveal that the public health measures implemented by the South African Government to curb the spread of the virus, may have placed vulnerable groups at increased risk of violence. Specifically, lockdown likely magnified the risk for escalation of abuse in families already experiencing IPV prior to COVID-19. The study highlights an IPV and COVID-19 relationship, showing that the gender insensitive pandemic control measures, such as stay at home orders and travel restrictions, likely placed women at risk of increased abuse. Given the recurrency of COVID-19 epidemic waves, attention must be given to gender disparities or many South African women may experience worse outcomes. CONCLUSION: This study reminds us that being ordered to stay at home is not always the safest option for women and thus, in a country with one of the highest levels of GBV, it becomes imperative to ensure that IPV safeguards are integrated into COVID-19 measures. It also becomes evident that COVID-19 requires enhanced ways of responding by paying attention to gender disparities.

The Endemic Amid the Pandemic: Seeking Help for Violence Against Women in the Initial Phases of COVID-19.

During the first months of the COVID-19 pandemic, governments instituted a series of measures to control the spread of the virus. The measures were widely believed to increase women's risk of violent victimization, most of which is by an intimate partner. We examined help-seeking during this period in a large U.S. city and used an interrupted time series analysis to assess the effects of three government interventions on domestic violence and sexual assault hotline calls and on "911" calls regarding domestic violence, assault, and rape. Declaration of an emergency appeared to reduce victim calls to the rape crisis hotline and the few "911" calls about rape. School closure was associated with a reduction in "911" calls about assault and rape and victim calls to the domestic violence hotline. Implementation of stay-at-home orders was associated with a gradual increase in domestic violence hotline calls. Although "911" calls regarding assault fell by nearly half, calls to police for domestic violence were unchanged. In sum, there was a decrease in help-seeking for sexual assault and assault in general but not for domestic violence during the initial phases of the COVID-19 outbreak. The analysis underscores the importance of distinguishing between the violence itself, calls to police, and calls to helplines when claims are made about changes over time in violence against women. The opportunities and constraints for each can differ widely under usual circumstances, circumstances that were altered by public health interventions related to the pandemic.

Violence against women in the Covid-19 pandemic: A review of the literature and a call for shared strategies to tackle health and social emergencies.

The aim of this article was to conduct a rapid critical review of the literature about the relationship between violence against women (VAW) and the current COVID-19 pandemic. After the screening process, a total of 42 articles were considered. Our review confirmed that the "stay at home" policies to contrast the pandemic have increased the problem of VAW, creating a "shadow pandemic within the pandemic", as it was called by the United Nations. However, rigorous studies estimating the relationship between VAW and COVID-19 pandemic are scarce; most of the articles are commentaries, letters, editorials, and most of the published data derives from social media, internet, anecdotal evidence and helplines reports. Health care systems should promote further investigations into the relation between VAW and COVID-19, to identify creative solutions to provide clinical care and forensic services for victims of VAW.

COVID-19, Lockdown, and Intimate Partner Violence: Some Data from an Italian Service and Suggestions for Future Approaches.

Intimate partner violence (IPV)-defined as physical, psychological, sexual, and/or economic violence typically experienced by women at home and perpetrated by their partners or expartners-is a pervasive form of violence that destroys women's feelings of love, trust, and self-esteem, with important negative consequences on physical and psychological health. Many reports from several countries have underlined a remarkable increase in the cases of IPV during the COVID-19 emergency. In this opinion article, we discussed the hypothesis that such an increase may be related to the restrictive measures enacted to contain the pandemic, including women's forced cohabitation with the abusive partner, as well as the exacerbation of partners' pre-existing psychological disorders during the lockdown. In addition, we retrospectively analyzed some data derived from our practice in a public Italian referral center for sexual and domestic violence (Service for Sexual and Domestic Violence [SVSeD]). These data interestingly revealed an opposite trend, that is, a decrease in the number of women who sought assistance since the beginning of the COVID-19 outbreak. Such a reduction should be interpreted as a negative consequence of the pandemic-related restrictive measures. Although necessary, these measures reduced women's possibilities of seeking help from antiviolence centers and/or emergency services. Owing to the COVID-19 outbreak, there is an urgent need for developing and implementing alternative treatment options for IPV victims (such as online and phone counseling and telemedicine), as well as training programs for health care professionals, especially those employed in emergency departments, to facilitate early detection of IPV.